Jayson Werth Discusses Next Contract

Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth will be eligible for free agency after the 2010 season. The 30-year-old's '09 season featured career-bests in plate appearances, home runs, RBIs, runs, and slugging percentage. He also qualifies as an above-average defensive right fielder. Werth signed a two-year, $10MM extension in January of '09.

Andy Martino of the Philadelphia Inquirer was part of the group questioning Werth about the future today. Asked if he sees himself as comparable to Jason Bay and Matt Holliday, Werth said he feels he's "a season away from something like that." Keep in mind that 2009 was the only time Werth reached 500 plate appearances in his seven-year career.

Werth says he's only had very preliminary talks with the Phillies about an extension. He wants to stay, and deferred to his agent when asked if he'd negotiate in-season. GM Ruben Amaro Jr. raised the topic a month ago, saying "there will be some difficult decisions down the road."

It seems feasible that Werth will exceed the three-year, $30MM range occupied by Raul Ibanez and Milton Bradley the previous offseason. Werth has advantages over both players, and given a strong 2010 he should be able to command four or five years at at least $12MM per.

Wrong. Few of the minor league phenoms turn out to be disappointments. Domonic Brown is a special talent anyway. Ryan Anderson, Dewon Brazelton, Delmon Young are a few but I’m optomistic about Brown and most Minor Leaguers also.

I’m ready to not only impregnate women due to sheer awesomeness, but I’ll chop down my own damn tree and make my own damn WonderBoy and have one helluva season. That’s a bearded guarantee, good as Christ.

I can give the Jays a pass there. I really mean the Dodgers because by the time he hit L.A. it was really becoming clear what he was. It’s just he didn’t have the BA, but I remember sparks of his true capacity were visible.

Yes they do but there are times when a player doesn’t put it all together right away and it isn’t obvious to the team they’ve really got something worth holding onto. I know what I saw from Werth when he came to L.A. but I am not convinced about how much of a sure thing he looked like back in his Toronto days. It would not be fair for me to trash the Jays on this one.

With the dodgers he looked more like a guy who was just injury prone and not going to be able to pull himself together. The Dodgers though have blown off so much young talent Konerko, Pedro Martinez, John Franco amongst others. However a few more years of havinf Andre Eithier makes up for it. Wish Worth the best.

Yeah, I wasn’t going to say but I do notice that about the Dodgers. Fortunately the talent they keep continues rolling out for them (Billingsley, Kershaw, Loney, Kemp, Ethier…etc.). Definitely they’re doing something right!

I was really disappointed when the Dodgers let him go. He was definitely one of my favorite Dodgers when he was there because of the way he interacted with the crowd. He threw me and my buddies a ball once after he was done warming up in-between innings and he always had fun with the fans in the pavilion. He had some flashes of potential in LA too, but he broke his wrist in Spring Training and it cost him an entire season on the DL. The Dodgers thought that he’d have really hard time returning from the injury so they non-tendered him. I’m really glad that he’s become a good player and as much as I dislike the Phillies, I rooted for Jayson.

…with a wrist injury that was horribly misdiagnosed by the LA training staff. He missed ’06 and spent most of ’07 recovering from it…’08 was the first year he was actually healthy again, and people finally saw what the Orioles did when they made him a 1st-rd pick.

I would love to see Werth back in Dodger blue, but I see that being very unlikely. Unless McCourt sells the team, he’s not to be paying for anybody that is going to get as much money as Werth. Also by next year, I would think the Dodgers would like to give someone like Andrew Lambo or Trayvon Robinson a shot to start in left.

You could say that about his batting maybe, but neither Holliday or Bay can even sniff Werth’s skills with the glove. He is much more gifted defensively, which makes him much more of an all-around guy than either of them, IMO.

Point taken, but in the field I see a hustle and hunger in Werth that I just don’t see in Holliday. Perhaps it’s a difference in styles, but defensively I’ll take that grinding passion any day of the week.

Remember, UZR stands for “Ultimate Zone Rating in Runs Above Average”, where average is for the specific position. You can’t directly compare an LF’s UZR to an RF’s. Also, even one whole season is considered a bit of a small sample size for UZR, according to fangraphs. Werth is a career 16.5 UZR/150 in RF, Holliday a career 6.9 in LF; advantage Werth. Plus Werth is good enough in the eyes of coaching staffs to fill in at CF at times, not Holliday.

I agree that Werth is better defensively and your point about positional differences is valid (although there are plenty of crappy defensive right fielders to be compared against). I just took exception to the posters comments that Holliday couldn’t “sniff Werth’s skills with the glove.” This is a continued trend of total disrespect for Matt Holliday defensively. Generally this stems from ESPN highlights that have shown muffs in the outfield over the past few post-seasons.

Hey, that’s interesting what you say about ESPN, but unfortunately you mistook my motives. I honestly am not a big ESPN fan and have little patience to watch except for the Web Gems. What I can say is that I watch a lot of baseball and I have seen Holliday play on many occasions, as I have Werth. I have seen several things in Werth that I find truly impressive (and often in person), whereas I have also witnessed my share of plays made by Holliday that made my stomach hurt. So it’s not that I disrespect Holliday – or the numbers – but defensively I find him to be decent rather than especially skilled.

Werth should get at least the 4/66 that Bay got, and possibly even more.

He’s a similar hitter to Bay, and a much better all-around player. In the past two years, he’s posted a league and park neutral 133 wRC+, compared to a 140 mark for Bay. Factoring in the massive advantages that Werth has defensively, and he’s clearly the better player.

If he’s willing to sign for something like 3/39 or 4/50, then someone’s going to get a pretty good deal.

I can see Werth getting Bay money, it all dpends on Werth’s 2010. I also want to say J Bay isn’t even worth his contract. These two guys are 4 yr $60 mil guys tops. Anyway I think after this 2010 season the Bronx Bombers (Yankees) will realize they strive with the power hitting and instead of going after Crawford will make a run for Werth. That’ll be a lethal 3 4 5 Tex, Arod, and Werth.

Loved him as a Dodger, put all my hopes into him, and his injury, along with a few others, just wrecked the crap out of the Dodgers 2005 season. I couldn’t imagine the talent and athleticism (with Ethier obviously being the worst athlete of the 3) of a Werth, Kemp, Ethier outfield…but I still wouldn’t want Werth, he’s been branded a Philly hero now…which essentially means he’s dead to me, lol.

If Werth stays healthy and has a very good 2010
and if the Yankees are targeting him first before anyone else for the OF
and if there are other suitors for Werth
then Werth will probably get a very lucrative offer from the Yankees.
You know they will refuse to be outbid by any team for a player they’ve penciled in for several years to come.

Werth’s power is not an illusion of CBP. He hits absolute moonshots, I really don’t know if there are 5 RH sluggers with more raw power in the game. He hit a ball into the 2nd deck in Yankee Stadium earlier this year, something I saw no one else do thus far. Also had a huge poke into the upper level at Citi

Literally the only thing that is a concern about him is health IMO. He is a fantastic athlete, great approach at the plate (check his P/PA vs league), uses RF well, strong arm, excellent base stealer. Absolutely demolishes lefties as well. Plus he’s a hilarious guy. Gonna suck when he walks next year